In a sweeping narrative spanning two centuries of biological discovery, a biochemist and immunologist with 35 years of experience developing innovative cancer drugs tells the origin stories of the astonishing 21st-century cancer treatments that are transforming the paradigm of cancer medicine from the toxic and destructive “cut, burn, and poison” approaches of the past to the use of “living drugs " made from engineered cells, viruses, and other molecular marvels that target the root causes of cancer.

Taming Cancer presents a vision of a time when a diagnosis of metastatic cancer is no longer by default a harbinger of a perilous dance with death. Even today, seemingly magical medicines that attack cancer at its molecular roots and unleash the tumor-destroying power of human immunity are making a difference in the lives of cancer patients and their families, improving both the duration and quality of life for those fortunate enough to benefit from them. For the most responsive patients, this targeted therapeutic approach has the potential to prevent the re-emergence of cancer for decades, and perhaps even achieve the “Holy Grail” of cancer treatment: the eradication of cancer cells from the body, the long-sought cure for cancer.

Taming Cancer addresses the key questions at the core of cancer research and drug development:

Why does cancer exist?

What causes cancer?

How does cancer progress from a single renegade cell to a deadly metastatic disease that ravages the patient’s entire body?

Why is metastatic cancer that has spread beyond the primary tumor’s bounds so hard to treat successfully?

How do the emerging breakthrough cancer treatments work?

What do cancer patients and their families need to know about the changing landscape of cancer medicine so they can ask the right questions to optimize their therapeutic journey and best alleviate their suffering?

Written for readers interested in developing a conceptual understanding of cancer and what can be done to confront it, the book also contains extensive endnotes for those who wish to delve deeper into the science. Taming Cancer sends a message of hope to cancer patients and their families that will enable the reader to understand and appreciate the marvels of 21st-century biology and its potential to alleviate the human suffering wrought by the most complex and malicious of human maladies.

Drew Kelner

Books